


Sword Art Online: Re_told

by DarkYugiBoy



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Character Death, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Romance, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:14:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25788682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkYugiBoy/pseuds/DarkYugiBoy
Summary: A complete retelling of the events from the start of the anime/light novels till the end of Aincrad (half-way through Season 1, or after the first two light novels). Incorporates elements from the later seasons and novels, and of the movie.Some things stay the same, whilst some events, characters, and locations change, and some are completely original.
Relationships: Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. The Real World

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a full story, but for the most part not written out with scenes, dialogue etc. Mostly, it will just be me telling you the events of the story in a fairly straight-forward way. I started writing this as a full story a few years ago, but it became too much of a time sink, unfortunately.  
> This is meant to be a retelling of the events of Sword Art Online, but as one complete story, mostly set inside of the game of Sword Art Online - i.e. expanding out, adapting, and changing the Aincrad arc. Lots is different, lots is similar but just more fleshed out than the anime had time for, and some stuff from after the characters leave Aincrad in the anime is also included here (although nothing from Season 3 onwards; no Alicization).  
> The whole story is complete.

_"Because you're here with me, our dreams will soar free... forever..."_

\- Crossing Field, SAO promotional song

Like the anime, chapter 1 starts in the real world (though we spend more time here).

Kazuto Kirigaya, our protagonist, is a 14 year old Japanese boy. One day, he finds himself in the centre of Tokyo. There are giant TV screens on the side of skyscrapers, promoting the new season of My Hero Academia, Coca-Cola, and global phenomenon video game Sword Art Online, which is launching in 5 days time. It's 2022 - the very near future - and Sword Art Online is proof that in a few short years VR technology has gone from headsets, earphones, and a controller that connects to your Playstation 4, into something incredible. SAO promises 'fulldive'; complete immersion.  
A user wears the NerveGear headset, and lies down; when activated, the headset takes over all signals between the body and the brain. A person doesn't see, hear, feel, touch, or taste the real world anymore, but instead experiences the signals inputted into the brain by the NerveGear. The user goes into this virtual world, feeling a body they are 'inhabiting' in this world. And there's more - if a person runs in their virtual body in the virtual world, the NerveGear can accelerate a person's heartrate, making them tired and sweaty. It can make their mouths dry if they haven't drunk water in the game for too long. The immersion experience is incredibly realistic, so the advertising promises. 

The game of Sword Art Online is being advertised as a full other world, that will be interactive and medieval. It's based on MMO RPGs, and will be an expansive fantasy land. Knights in shining armour, goblins, fair maidens, markets, cities, forests and lakes. A sword can take someone wherever they want to go. More than that, Sword Art Online is an escape from our modern day anxieties; "using advanced technology to escape our technology-obsessed world - Escape to a simpler time, and focus instead on real and dangerous situations, and connect in meaningful ways with your friends, people in neighbouring cities, or anyone in the world with a NerveGear headset". 

Tokyo is a tech-heavy city. Kazuto lives on the outskirts, so coming to the centre today he's blown away byt the twisting glass buildings, the Starbucks', the food stalls, and the gaming arcades with winking anime girls that seem to be on every corner and several stories high. At school, Kazuto is a loner. He feels lonely and also angry a lot of the time. He's scared of talking to people. He keeps to himself a lot; he wouldn't know how to talk to people, and he's scared too of hurting people if they get close. Maybe he's a good person at heart. But the anger is huge. Kazuto sits on a park bench in Tokyo, and feels like he's watching the world from inside a bubble. People bustle part, swinging briefcases, or giggling in groups, or holding hands, or laughing riotously with friends. He watches them go past, but can't interact with them, can't understand them - like watching characters move on a screen.  
At school, there's a girl in his class he likes, who has bright pink hair and a lot of attitude. She's called Rika, and sometimes says hi to him kindly, when passing. He thinks about her a lot, and feels bad after staring too long in class or across the playground. He feels bad partly because he knows he could easily have a crush on anybody; he always seems to have someone he thinks about and likes. He spends breaktimes alone, or at computer club when it's on. But right now, he's reading an article about Akihiko Kayaba - the inventor and chief developer for Sword Art Online; also the creator of the NerveGear; and CEO of the company Argus, which he founded, that develops all the VR technology and the SAO game. He looks stoic and lost in thought in the picture accompanying the interview, though he's very young - in his early or mid-twenties. On the next page is a well-placed, quite in-depth advert that Kazuto has read about as many times as he's listened to the song 'Crossing Field'. There's a paragraph of text about the world of Sword Art Online:

_Long ago, there was nothing but white space, inside  
the mind of the AllFather, Akihiko Kayaba.  
Then, a single thought gave life to this world. A flat  
green and luscious land floated in the centre of the  
space, and the white turned to a white and blue sky.  
He dreamt, and orcs appeared; elves appeared;  
sparrows flew, dwarves tunnelled and disappeared, and the dwarves had once been elves, he  
decided. Flowers and forests, and trees. Every thought became less  
original, over time, sprouting instead off a previous idea, and making a  
world ever more complex; entwined; interlinked.  
This was how Kayaba lost control of his world, his world called Fahemil.  
And this was how Aincrad was born.  
Chaos and craziness and different inventions started appearing by their own. Kayaba lost track  
of the world. It fractured and split in a great earthquake, into 100 round pieces. Trying to make  
sense of it all, he rearranged the pieces of land on top of one another in  
descending size. This is Aincrad; the floating  
castle in the sky.  
Kayaba cannot keep it all under control by himself.  
Noble warriors, that is where you come in..._

_Explore Aincrad. Conquer every floor.  
One sword will take you where you want to go._

_"Because you're here with me, our dreams  
will soar free forever."_

Kazuto idolises Akihiko Kayaba as a genius game designer, and dreams of being in interviews himself and being called a genius and creating worlds, all just in the same way he's always dreaming of a powerful romance that will define his life one day. He often ends up at Computer Club just to avoid Tetsuo, a boy in his class who always gels his hair into spikes and likes to bully Kazuto. Tetsuo would knock his lunch to the gravel ground, push him over, call him girly names - yesterday, before Tokyo, Tetsuo's joke had hit hard. Tetsuo's father was a wealthy Japanese businessman, who travelled the world making important deals. Tetsuo was ordering a NerveGear and a copy of Sword Art Online, to be released in just a few days, and he'd be sure to tell his father it was a worthy investment having played it. Tetsuo owning Argus and Sword Art Online! Did he know Argus was pushing for heavy global sales, with an 'accessible price' (it was brand new expensive technology, they could charge what they wanted!) - _and_ they were hosting global servers for this game, using satellite connections and what must be hefty computer power? Argus _were_ vulnerable? But Tetsuo couldn't really know could he? Kazuto was sure he fumbled something semi-defiant about Argus doing the right thing for people who couldn't afford the game, and making a global community of players for gaming nerds and average people, but he ran away before he could hear many more of Tetsuo's remarks. 

Kazuto thinks about the cherry blossom trees that dropped pink leaves onto wet concrete in Tokyo centre; the neon lights when it got dark; the heavy cluster of shops, arcades, and glass and anime. The mist covering the base of Mt Fuji in the distance. It was like a dream, the mountain, because it blurred into the horizon. But it wasn't a dream. It was close enough that you could really walk there and see it for real. One day, he knew after seeing it, he wanted to go.

Back in his bedroom, at home after school, Kazuto feels back in his real resting state. Here he can be in peace by himself, but it's a horrible peace. He's always plagued by horrible thoughts, or nothingness. He spends hours staring into space at the wall, the grey and bare walls of his room, and the grey ceiling. He might hold himself in dark moments between the bed and the wall, with his knees locked up into himself, wishing for all the pain dragging him down to stop. It feels so disconnected, but the pain is there. He covers his ears whenever he hears his mom shouting on the phone to his dad, who is working away in America. They weren't really his mom and dad though; they were his aunt and uncle. He'd found out recently searching on the web and expertly hacking into some easy-to-access government records that his parents had died in a car crash when he was 1. He didn't remember it. And it didn't matter. It was really loud here.

His 'mom' worked for a computer company in Tokyo; Kazuto would so often ask to come into the centre with her to see all the shops and lights, but going the other day after school, on his own and with no-one knowing, was actually the first time he'd gone. She was always very stressed. His sister, in the room next door, would leave for kendo practice often (she was regional level), and leave small kind notes outside his door. She was worried he was turning into an otaku, he figured, and that made him want to shout and just fume, it hurt she could think that. 

So, besides watching Western films and anime, Kazuto would game - mostly on MMO RPGs, like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, or even old stuff like Runescape. He loved to explore. Sometimes he left the house, for real, and got away, walking around the suburban neighbourhood, or far enough away to reach the forest and heritage temple site. Mt Fuji was in the distance from his grey window too, though quite small compared to seeing it from Tokyo - a dream, far away. He'd seen around a lot of the MMO RPG worlds out there. He loved the feeling of reaching a new skill level in a game too. It was addicting, trying to be the best, winning a fight. He didn't play in parties often, and he'd never joined a guild. If he ever did end up working in a party to take down a boss or explore an area then he'd stick to his assigned role, but also just do his own thing within that role; he didn't like listening to those players who insisted they stick to their strategy for a fight or whatever, and just blacked out the chat a lot. He'd made maybe one or two friends, or people who would message him and he'd ignore.

Right now, Kazuto tried to fall asleep, but it was painful and he would too often just lie there, dreaming in his head. It was strangely comforting, he noticed that evening, having his triple monitor computer on his desk just stay on. On the screens, screensavers of different locations in Sword Art Online would fade into one another: it went from deserts to mountains, to forests to lakes covered in mist, all with the SWORD ART ONLINE logo written centre screen. An endless world of possibility, where one sword could take you wherever you wanted to go. He loved screens: each a digital canvas, on which you could paint an entire virtual world. But the immersion of Sword Art.... the place where he hoped to go back in just 4 days. He'd picked up his reserved copy from a game shop that had been in central Tokyo yesterday, and he still had the NerveGear headset from where he'd played the beta of the game a month ago. No-one in his family knew he'd been involved. But then, the beta had felt very basic; there had only been a very small area to explore. It had felt more like they were testing the VR capabilities, and leaving the most of the actual game and worlds to be released with the actual game launch. 

Kazuto eventually fell asleep, thinking about the song that always played with the TV advert for Sword Art, and that he'd listened to a million times:

_I was never right  
for the the hero type of role,  
I admit it.  
With my heart  
shivering in fear,  
I can see today's reflected in each past tear._

_Even so,_

_it has been calling  
the heavens to me.  
But I cannot hide  
all the emptiness inside  
my fleeting heart._

_Once in my dreams,  
I rose and soared.  
No matter how I'm  
knocked around or beaten down  
I will stand up restored._

_All of my love  
has yet to wake.  
I know your strength is  
what I lack, you've got my back,  
and now that I've got yours,  
I have you to thank,  
for lighting up my dark.  
Because you're here with me,  
our dreams will soar free  
forever..._

He wanted to be in love.


	2. Aincrad

It is the day of launch for SAO. 

Kazuto Kirigaya - or 'Kirito', as he calls his avatar in the game (an abbreviation of his first and surname) - hasn't told his family he owns a copy of Sword Art Online. He locks his bedroom door and waits for his sister to leave the house for kendo practice before he can relax and feel safe. He lies down on his bed, connecting his NerveGear helmet into the wall for power, and inserting the game Sword Art Online into the helmet. The game is a big cartridge, like a blown up version of a GameBoy game, with a picture of grinning young knights and winking maidens against a colourful forest backdrop. He slots it into the back of the helmet. 

Kazuto - Kirito - is excited, and wants to savour the moment. He closes his eyes, lying on his bed with the helmet on, and whispers 'Link start!' to active the game - and all the colour and senses around him wash down a drain, and for a moment he can feel absolutely nothing, and can only see darkness like a blank screen. 

I hadn't planned a lot about how the start of Kirito being in Sword Art Online would work - I didn't want to do exactly what the anime did, I knew that. Here's as much as I have, again just explained rather than written as proper scenes. 

Kirito logs in and arrives in a giant plaza (as seen in the anime) - this is based off the real St. Peter's Square, in Vatican City (this is actually the case in the anime too), where the Pope can address thousands of followers standing in the square (parallels much, with Kayaba addressing everyone in the square in the anime???). From the plaza, stretches a whole city, which is the starting area of the game Sword Art Online - the city is called The Town of Beginnings. This is somewhat based off of medieval Rome, with market stalls and yellow stone houses and buildings, as well as an enormous black marble palace that's next to the plaza. 

Kirito explores the city, its smells and sights and the sounds of cheer and laughter from markets and amazed players, and he feels "more alive in this world than he ever did in the real one". As said in Chapter 1, Sword Art Online in this story is a global game. People can choose how they appear though, and it seems that everyone has avatars that would suit medieval Europe - basically matching the setting of The Town of Beginnings. There are obviously language barriers for players communicating with one another, though there is a Google Translate-type feature, and there's a whole list of key phrases a player can select from that can be translated into any other language instantly - either spoken out loud, coming out of the player's mouth, or that can be sent to another player in a message format. 

In a normal MMO RPG, you have a menu you can access and other features. This is the same in Sword Art Online; if a player swipes down their middle and index finger of their right hand, together, in the air, a blue translucent menu box will appear right before them. In here, they can access any clothing items, weapons, or other items, they can check their current skill level and what skills they have, and they can add players to their Friends List, and then send messages to other players. It's not known what skills are actually available; everyone has Sword Skill Level 1, and also has a very basic tunic and armour as clothing, and a basic sword to fight with, as well as 100 col (which is the currency in Sword Art Online). 

The Town of Beginnings is a cobbled-street, charming town. On sale are many delicious foods, and beautiful and strong looking pieces of armour and weapons on sale. There's also housing, inns to stay the night in, cathedrals and churches, and so much more. But this is, apparently, only the tip of the iceberg. This is the 'safe zone' town of Floor 1 out of 100 in Sword Art Online. In a safe zone, a player can't come to harm. Players have a health bar, that decreases if they're attacked, and presumably if they are poisoned or for other reasons. If this reaches zero, a player presumably respawns at some designated place, maybe with some consequence of losing money or skill levels. But people don't actually know; there is no manual, instruction guide, or tutorial for Sword Art Online. No-one actually knows how it works; only people who have been following the advertising would even be aware of the fact there's 100 floors and this is the first one. Outside of this safe zone is the rest of Floor 1. No-one knows what's out there; players wonder if the people who were lucky enough to play the SAO Beta test, such as Kirito, know - but they don't. 

In the far distance, blending in with the horizon, is a white swirling tower of cloud that goes seemingly from the ground (though Kirito can't see the base, blocked by rolling green hills) all the way up to the top of the sky. Kirito has seen a picture of Aincrad, the floating castle in the sky, in adverts - it is a concrete pyramid, made up of 100 floors of land, that get smaller as they go up. The horizontal of Aincrad represents space, and the vertical is meant to represent time. They are on Floor 1. So the sky, that looks like a flat swirl of blue and white with hints of grey, is actually the ceiling of this floor, and the base of Floor 2. Kirito looks out into the distance again. It's hard to tell, but he figures he is actually looking at the space between Floor 1 and Floor 2, looking out of Aincrad and at the sky outside. The space inside of Akihiko Kayaba's mind, according to the adverts. He wonders if you reached the edge of the floor could you look down and see what was below.

The other floors of SAO are currently locked. It's only by finding that column of cloud in the distance can they ascend it up to Floor 2. If Kirito knows his games, there will no doubt be some sort of boss monster-creature that will block their way up, and will have to be defeated and killed first. 

That's most of the explanation needed of the game itself, for now. As for the first day of events, in this story Kirito does not meet Klein here. Also, unlike the anime, Kayaba never speaks to the players of Sword Art Online. The 100,000 players, after a few hours, start to discover there is no log out button in the menu. Kirito sees where it was in the beta, but it's not there anymore. This is seen more of a gimmick or a game, like a way to make Sword Art Online seem more immersive. After 12 hours, this becomes despair, anxiety, and fear. In the real world, what is happening to their bodies, without being fed, lying on beds and sofas? 

What happens next? A lot of this info you'll already know from the anime. Let's start the story now with proper divergences.


	3. The First Month: Part 1

We don't know initially how many of the players reacted to finding out they were trapped inside of Sword Art Online. What Kirito notices is how real Sword Art Online is and feels. This isn't like VR of the past; Kirito cannot tell that this world isn't real, besides the fact he knows he logged in. It feels almost like a dream. The stonework is coarse and crumbles small stones at his touch, and the forests look damp and dark and devoid of sunlight. 

We skip ahead a few days after the launch of Sword Art Online. Kirito has left the safe zone that is the Town of Beginnings. This is uncharted territory; there is a map option in the menu for each player, but it is blank outside of The Town of Beginnings. The map area does not fill out either, after an area has been explored, as would be expected in a normal MMO RPG online game. He is currently in a dark forest, trying to find a town or even just a small village where he might stay for the night. 

The Town of Beginnings was an idyllic MMO RPG fantasy land of the kind you might expect. Shining armout, succulent meats on sticks, merriment and banners. But the armour is level 1 stuff; it looks elaborate but it does very little. It is weak. And outside the safe zone, The Town of Beginnings is revealed as a ruse. It has so far been forests and trees, and fields, with wild boar. He saw a bear once, whilst walking through a forest, but thankfully it didn't see him. He was cold in a forest one night, with no camp in sight, so he made a camp fire. He'd seen in movies that rubbing two sticks together could make fire, and tried for half an hour. When a spark came, a little translucent blue box appeared telling he had acquired a new skill - 'Fire'. 

When Kirito had left The Town of Beginnings, he'd received a notification by the game - a translucent blue box had appeared before him in mid-air - telling him he'd received an item: 'Mirror'. When Kirito looked into it, his avatar transformed from the Medieval, Western one he'd made, to look exactly like himself. This would be the case for all players who left the first floor safe zone.

He'd nearly died trying to kill a boar. Swiping at a target with your standard issue sword was very ineffective, but if you held it in certain ways, like a real soldier. It was a one-handed sword, so using it with two hands wouldn't work; he held it exactly horizontal to the ground and it took a half-second to charge up before his whole body expertly zipped forward in a forward slash, a pre-set motion that the game had devised. It was kind of amazing, even if he missed the first few times, and landed painfully on the ground, where the heavy boar then noticed him and charged with great white tusks coming out of its mouth. His health bar - he could see it by flicking his eyes to the very top left of his vision - had depleted by half by the end, turning from green to yellow. It started to go back again after time, with time and rest, and more when he ate the boar meat and drank. He'd found a stream - it occurred to him it might not be safe to drink; how realistic was this world? - but he drank anyway, his mouth dry. He didn't know if there was a way out of this world or not, be he still couldn't help smiling; he was alone, trapped in a video game, surviving by his own wits. He was going to conquer this world. He was going to be stronger than any other player and be spoken about as a saviour, a great legend in Aincrad. 

After he'd killed the boar, it's own health bar had dropped from green to yellow to red and then nothing; there was a dial tone beep noise, then the boar shattered into blue hexagonal shards. A translucent blue box had appeared. 

XP 30  
Col 5

Boar meat x1

He cooked the boar meat on the fire, and a translucent blue box appeared saying "SKILL: Cooking; SUB-SKILL: Cooking (Wild)". The third night out he got braver and killed more boar. Another box appeared at one point "Level up! LEVEL 2" (although he didn't know what that actually meant for game play). 

The next evening he left a forest; down a small path, and a small settlement came into view. The first he'd seen in game, a small collection of wooden houses out in the wilderness. There were people milling out. These were Non-Playable Characters (NPCs), who went around on loops like animatronics at Disneyland, or robots in Westworld. Game programs, who went around feeding chickens, milking cows, playing with other children, sitting on chairs on the porch, bringing up water from the well, and over and over. A human could talk to them in a limited way; if he got close enough the NPCs would pause. If he talked to one of them, they could respond from a limited series of pre-recorded responses. But they could tell a human information if he asked the right questions

He wanted to know more about the lay of the land; he also wanted to explore it for himself. He was able to talk to an NPC father and he kindly let him stay the night with his family, sleeping in their cellar on a bed of hay. 

He wandered away the next day. He must have walked miles in Aincrad, and this was the only settlement he'd ever come across. The Town of Beginnings was maybe a mile in diameter. Floor 1 must have been somewhere been 5 and 10 miles. He'd hoped to find a blacksmith's or market maybe in the settlement he'd found, where he could buy new sword, food, or clothes, using the money he'd collected and the resources he'd gotten and could perhaps barter with - but they were very primitive. He'd walked close to the edge of the floor and found no castles, lords or ladies, or anything besides more forests. He'd learned from the NPC father that there was something strange about a nearby cave; this usually meant it was a quest, where at the end would be riches, a rare item, or new weapons. He hadn't thought much about his family or the real world for a couple of days now, he realised, just before walking into the large mouth of darkness, holding a burning torch.

Kirito goes into the cave. It's dark, and a lot damper than he'd might have thought. The trees he'd brushed away to enter sprung back in place behind him. It echoed when he moved, but it was also dead quiet. The path quickly descended into water, and it kept descending. The walls narrowed too, quietly but quickly, until the water was so high for him to pass. He held his breath, unsure and scared, and felt his way underwater; it was wider further down, where he could pass. He pushed through, and then it was walking with his head below water in the narrow rocky path, trying every few seconds to stand - feeling the cool icy water weigh down on him, starting to suffocate, starting to lower his HP. Finally, he stood. Pitch black, he was shivering in the dark - alive, very alive - and he tried to relight his torch fervently. The only thing he could see was his HP bar. It inched from green to yellow, 60% to 59%, healthy and unhealthy.

Kirito keeps walking, exploring. The walls were craggy and rocky. The torch didn't afford much light; he had to feel his way forward, worrying for every step, and not knowing if he was making progress. He could be going round in circles. But he had reached a bigger space; the light flickered in between spaces all around him; it was like a maze of rocks he would have to climb up through; exhilarating. When he reached the top, there was a new tunnel that was oblong and smooth rock. He could see everything, with torch brackets lining the walls. He wished he could record the way he'd been on his map function in the menu. 

Kirito sees a figure far ahead in the long tunnel. It's on the ground and small. It's a small girl, curled up against the wall, crying. This is Silica. As Sword Art Online is a global game in this story, a lot of the characters are now from different countries. I imagined Silica to be from a poor family from Eastern Europe. Like how the map data doesn't work, all the language functions that allowed people to communicate have gone too. They are able to communicate a little though, through a shared knowledge of English and some gestures. Silica looks about 12 years old; she's deeply upset because she had a small blue dragon pet she'd befriended, but now it's run off. Silica had a lot of older brothers back home; one of them got a copy of the Sword Art Online game and NerveGear, and they let Silica play on it first (not knowing, of course, that it was going to trap her in the game). Kirito is reminded a bit of his little sister, and wants to help her. Silica would cling to the dragon for comfort and safety, and laugh and play with it; it was comfort to her, in this dark and desperate situation. Maybe Kirito wants to help her also to play this strong hero role, but he doesn't realise he's playing it. 

They walk down the end of the tunnel, Kirito saying comforting things and holding her hand. At the end of the tunnel is a bright open cave space. A narrow walkway is the only way forward, and it splits off every 50 metres to side channels, with barriers for protection. There is some giant boar standing at the end of the walkway. Kirito blinks twice and the boar spits out a giant fireball, which careens down the walkway and smashing into a wall at the end, very near Kirito and Silica. 

Pina, Silica's small pet dragon, is hiding down one of the side channels. It spots Silica and yips and comes running to her, out of the side channel and down the walkway. Kirito tries to stop her, but Silica is overjoyed to see her pet and runs towards him. Another fireball is shot out by the boar at the tunnel's end; it hits Pina first, then a second later reaches Silica. Kirito, half-frozen in shock, watches Silica's body shatter. No-one knows what happens when you die in Sword Art Online. No-one knows if you just respawn at the start, in The Town of Beginnings. 

Eventually, Kirito makes his way down the walkway, diving down a side channel every time a fireball is about to be shot. Near the end he meets a guild of players. Leading them is a young man named Klein. In this story, he is a laidback American gamer, with a goofy smile, upbeat attitude, and Shaggy aesthetic. He's in his early to mid twenties, and basically works a boring office job to fund his massive videogame enthusiasm. They meet behind a barrier in one of the sidechannels, Klein grinning as a massive and burning fireball lights up past them. Kirito looks up to Klein. This older guy, who's a videogame nut but seems mature and happy, even in this horrible situation they're in. The other guys in his guild listen to him, but they're all friends and banter one another. Of course, in the Sword Art Online anime, it's an on-running joke with fans that Klein is set up to be Kirito's best friend and almost sidekick, and then they barely see each other. I wanted to write this story so that it was almost like circumstance and this cruel world was what kept tearing them apart, and they were always planning to spend all their time together and hang out (basically, I wanted us to ship them). Kirito actually feels nervous around Klein; as if Klein has it all together in life, and Kirito is always saying the wrong things, that aren't smart enough or funny enough and come across as just plain awkward. Kirito is grateful that Klein wants to hang out with him, even if Kirito feels like it highlights how shit he is in comparison. 

Klein says he lost a friend a few days ago from their guild. They went back to The Town of Beginnings, to see if he'd respawned at the castle, but he hadn't. He's skeptical if people do respawn, as no-one's heard that to be the case. Klein, his guild, and Kirito together get past the boar and defeat it. Kirito doesn't continue with them after the cave. At the cave's end is a rare sword. Kirito lets Klein and his guild have it, and he numbly walks away into a field, with everything that happened in the cave weighing on him. The field is tall grass. Standing in it is an NPC. This is a small girl, with brown hair. She asks him if 'excuse me mister; have you seen a dragon anywhere?'. The girl is identical to Silica. She says the same line over and over. Kirito runs. The field is full of small Silicas, hiding in the grass, asking for their pet dragon. Kirito run towards the edge of the floor.


	4. The First Month: Part 2

We know in the first month of SAO (in the anime), 2000 players die. In this worldwide story, it's closer to 20,000. 

The first floor is barbaric. There are very few settlements anywhere. And there is no instruction guide on how to play SAO, or many skills or items available to players once they leave The Town of Beginnings. The 'monsters' aren't all that crazy - except in special caves and different areas, they are mostly wild animals: boars, birds, bears. The col collected from killing animals or completing quests can be used to buy armour and weapons (if you can find your way back to The Town of Beginnings), but it turns out the items on sale are mostly decorative and do very little; they are a trick and a deception by Kayaba, that is cruel and mean. Many players die from lack of basic necessities - from the cold and night and no way to make fire or build a shelter, or being unable to kill an animal because they can't figure out how to work a sword; or standing before an life-like bear, and being too terrified to move and attack it. There are berries and trees and wild plants, but what's poisonous and not is anyone's guess. Not that the flora looks particularly crazy either. Although SAO is a fictional world, this could just as easily be Earth before civilisations. 

Kirito has run from the cave, and the field of Silicas. He watches a mugging happening at one point, from behind some rocks. A gang of players, have been waiting at the roadside to ambush players and kill them. Kirito can hear a little dial tone beep noise, signifying a player's HP has reached zero, and then the fragile, delicate tinkle like smashing glass when a player's body shatters into blue hexagonal shards. The shards float away and separate into smaller and smaller pieces as they rise. An item pack - all of a player's possessions they had on them at the time - will be dropped, so a living player can pick it up and inherit all that player's items, such as swords or food or col, for their own.  
Again, in MMO RPGs that Kirito has played on his computer in the real world, a player can carry a huge amount at once, because it's all just code - in SAO, it seems, you can only carry literally whatever you can keep on your person. When your pockets are full, and you can't carry anymore swords, you've reached your limit. Col doesn't count though, but if you want to change outfits you have to discard your old clothes first, or carry them with you. 

Further traumatised, Kirito reaches the edge of the Floor. Looking down, he sees nothing but clouds and sky. There is a group of players nearby, and Kirito can hear one of them talking to the others. The speechmaker talks about how they don't know what has happened to be trapped in this game, but clearly Akihiko Kayaba is divine - he is testing them. To leave this world, all they need is faith. He leads the players assembled, who follow him off the edge of the floor. They fly, briefly, shrinking in view, and then shatter one by one.

Kirito finds a new settlement, more built up than the last, where a fair few people have found refuge. Some people have just disappeared over time, collapsing for no reason. There's theories that something happened to their bodies in the real world, or they were disconnected from the game. All anyone knows that it seems if you die in the game, you don't come back. It's terrifying, and anxious.  
The Town of Beginnings was a mile in diameter or so. The whole first floor was several miles. At the further reaches, the land got a bit stranger. There were small floating islands of land, and waterfalls coming down from them. Some of the creatures were more demonic or larger than life, some of the flowers bright colours and strange shapes. 

Eventually, there is some hope. Through word of mouth, more people find the small settlement, until it's nearly overflowing. A guild has apparently found the entrance to the first floor boss room. Most players had been busy trying to survive moment to moment, or just day to day, not even knowing how the game worked. Even if no-one knew what happened when your avatar died, the feelings of hunger from lack of food or pain from being attacked were very real. Kirito used what knowledge he could from playing many other games, practiced sword motions, and eventually unlocked new skills and sword skills just by trial and error. The more he did, the more XP he gained, and the more levels his character raised; he found he had more energy, more strength, and could move faster or smoother too, which meant he used less energy and was less vulnerable to a counterattack too.

A meeting is set up by the base of the large tower that Kirito saw when he first entered SAO; the tower that from a distance seems like a column of cloud, and connects the base of the floor with the sky (or rather the ceiling of the floor above). It's to be in a week's time. The tower's base happens to be near this larger settlement. 

In this meeting, set in a forest clearing around a large campfire - the guild hosting the meeting, and the ones who found the entrance to the boss cavern, that leads to the boss room where the players must go to defeat the boss, had cut down trees and turned them into log benches. A rudimentary chair had been cut too, and in that chair sat the leader of the guild, a 17-year-old called Diavel. He had flowing blue hair, though no-one was sure how he'd managed it. Everyone Kirito had met looked like their real nationality. Communication was difficult with different languages; English was being used where possible, but looking at the 50 or so players gathered here, Kirito noticed people who spoke similar languages had also broken off into smaller groups.

Diavel was a couple of years older than Kirito, dressed dazzlingly, with like all of the equipment and unhelpful armour available at The Town of Beginnings. He sounded hopeful and tried to be inspiring, which a lot of people needed. A girl about Kirito's age with bright orange hair, called Asuna, was helping Diavel, like an assistant. She seemed very keen and organised and that was sort of her whole personality, to get everyone doing things correctly and organising meeting times. She nudged Diavel at the start that it was time to begin; he whispered a few words to her, as people continued to arrive and sit down, and she looked away ashamed, clutching a list (made of parchment, maybe) close to her chest. She would look at Diavel every now and then as he spoke to the players and pull a strand of hair back behind her ear and smile, then look away from him, as if she wasn't peeking. 

There is an angry teenager, with spikey red hair, who bullied Kirito in the real world - Tetsuo, although his character name in the game is Kibaou. He questions why anyone should lead them - they're not in charge - but his anger is born out of fear. Diavel calms him with his honesty and idea of bravery. Kirito knows Kibaou/Tetsuo was never much of a gamer in the real world, so he must be well out of his depth. Diavel earns Kibaou's respect, and Kibaou becomes loyal to him, calling himself his bodyguard (finding a way to stay close to Diavel basically). Basically he becomes his hype man. He follows along when the next day - along with almost everyone else there - they go to the boss cavern, to raid it and find and defeat the boss. Kirito is confused by Diavel, and even a bit angry at him playing this role of everything being ok, and him being this shining knight that leads them. It's reinstating a belief in the fantasy element of Sword Art Online - reassuring people that it is still a game, and removing some of the danger. Kirito hates it for that exact reason - he thinks it's lying. 

The base of the tower is not where the entrance to the boss cavern lay. There was a small cave entrance, almost hidden among leaves and twigs, hidden in the middle of the forest, that they each have to drop into. Half a mile of walking and fighting down caves in the dark, fighting off bears, and then stranger creatures like small goblins and skeletons and they finally reach the boss room, with a handful less people. 

During the boss fight, Kirito lands the final blow to the boss. Asuna is at the back, instructing where players should be, largely afraid to fight, whilst Diavel leads. It's messy, with scared players who don't know each other, a 10ft tall monster as the boss, and language barriers. They lose some players whilst fighting. Diavel says they should pull back, although he himself continues to fight; as does Kirito, who doesn't want to be told what to do, and is enjoying figuring out the fight. The fight is thrilling and exciting and dangerous, but Kirito feels safe. This boss is a huge lumbering beast, rotund and several feet bigger than a bear in all directions, but it's slow and has limited patterns of movement that Kirito predicts and fights against. Diavel is actually eager to kill the boss himself, but gets slashed and killed. Kirito is now fighting alone, with everyone else just outside the boss room, watching.

When it dies, exploding into shards, it drops a rare item, just for Kirito - The Cloak of Midnight (Kirito's classic black cloak) - that has the ability to make a player invisible in public. A player's eye wanders away from Kirito if they try and look at him. Kirito got the final blow and technically defeated the boss alone (as everyone else drew back from fighting, besides the deceased Diavel). Asuna berates Kirito for recklessly fighting alone. Kibaou is convinced Kirito's actions got Diavel killed; he is venomously angry, calling him Kazuto. Kirito feels bad for Diavel's death - he barely noticed, in the swing of things - and sees Asuna's shocked and angry face, but he's also hit with a lot of sadness and desperation that he sees for a moment. He suddenly feels horrible. What do we cling to in desperate times, and how do we cope when that's lost? Kirito ascends up the staircase at the end of the boss room, walking up the tower to reach the second floor, alone.


	5. Before Civilisation

Kirito spends a lot of time alone for the next few months. It's very barbaric and he doesn't have much chance making friends. He enjoys solving battle problems and exploring. A lot of the world of Sword Art Online is unpopulated by NPCs. There's a floor that's all desert. Another that's forests and lakes. But most of the first few floors are very similar to Floor 1. Kirito didn't join the frontline fight again. He would scour a floor - they were all many miles long - and if he stumbled across the safe town of that floor then he might check and see how many floors the game had progressed. The only real bit of technology seemed that in the plaza of each safe town was a teleport, that could take a player to any floor that was unlocked in the game. 

A lot of the world was still in chaos, and as he'd seen on Floor 1. On a whim, he visited The Town of Beginnings again. There were still lots of players there, but they looked half-dead. It turned out you couldn't teleport from The Town of Beginnings; you had to leave the safe zone and make your way up to Floor 2 by yourself, through the dead boss' room. He saw players scrounging just outside the safe zone for easy kills or players who moved about weakly, looking like they weren't eating well. There was a man standing on a box, preaching. He talked about Kayaba, who trapped them all in here, as god; the AllFather; the decider of their fates. They should dedicate their lives praising him for safety. Another preacher, further down the street, says they should go into battle in Kayaba's name, and that SAO is a test. Reaching the end will bring reward; dying in combat means you are sent to the world beyond the sky - another level of Sword Art Online, outside of Aincrad and the world of sky surrounding the floating castle, but to a plane outside of it. 

It was safer to scrounge the easy pickings outside the safe zone in groups. Kirito had come across people forming guilds before. This was a kind-faced older man, maybe in his late twenties, bringing lots of desperate-looking people to come outside, and split their findings with each other. A few players were able to take advantage; most were grateful. Kirito noticed they all wore identical grey tunics, like a uniform. They were white in patches; someone must have figured out how in SAO you could take white shirts and dye them. They wore some of the knightly cheap and weak armour you could buy at The Town of Beginnings too; cheap protection, but affordable when the col that was collected was also equally split up. They called themselves the Aincrad Liberation Front, but people were dubbing them the Army. 

As they rose to Floor 10, 11, 12, these groups and guilds grew slowly. The floors got slightly more interesting too. There was the odd castle or large town and settlement. If you could take a castle from the group of NPCs lords and ladies (and soldiers) that lived there then you'd be insurmountable, but taking it was tricky too. The settlements had small markets where you could get armour instead of just going on dangerous quests into caves, or deep forests. 

Survival was somewhat of a resources game. Over a few months of killing boar on Floor 1 outside the safe zone, you'd have to keep going further and further out to find more. The boar weren't respawning when they were killed. This meant the Army also had to raise their game. Likewise, the trees weren't growing back when they were cut, like in a normal game. The same was true of quests; complete it, and if anyone else went the same way then they'd find the prize at the end already taken. It was feeling more real. Resources like rings that increased your speed, swords with higher attacks, were all helpful in fights and staying alive. 

There was a higher rate of floor clearance. A lot of the more ambitious guilds were eager to kill a boss for the experience points and rare item they might get. Kirito stayed silent though. He slipped through crowds often unnoticed, wearing his cloak. He often stared into space in an inn somewhere or alone in a cavern, letting time slip away, or he grinded away in caves all night, trying to raise his level. One time he was in a labyrinth and narrowly avoided Army players, going a different path - they were levelling up their game, looking for rare items. He was going to become the best player in the game. He felt angry for some reason; at his family, back in the real world; at being put here; at not being better; at Silica's death, or being too scared to message Klein. He liked pushing himself and surviving; he'd run fast, until his energy had just about depleted, and found that next time he could go a little bit further. He ate when he found food. He liked being in control of his own life. Every now and then he liked staring at the rolling hills and the sun that 'set' when it passed through the gap of the floor and ceiling of the floor he was staying on that night. He liked adrenaline and life and breathing; but also sweating heavily and screaming as he pushed himself too hard. He was angry at being lonely. He'd wear his cloak in public so he couldn't be seen, and watched guilds go past, feeling guilty. People seemed so happy and casual together sometimes, or even just connected with each other at least. They were still on the other side of a screen. He started wishing for love. Someone... someone like Rika, who he'd crushed on in the real world. Who was smart and funny and better than he was, and who he could protect in this cruel world. There was a girl he'd seen one time, standing over a hole in the floor that led straight down to the floor below - there was a tear in her eye, and he told her not to jump, but they must've spoken different languages, because she leapt anyway - or was that a dream? 

He did meet an Army boy called Rico in the labyrinth - Kirito asked him why he fought when he was scared and seemed like he didn't want to. They both spoke enough English to get along. Rico said dully that he didn't see another choice. He mentions that the Army is telling soldiers now it's their duty to protect the weaker players of SAO - that also means it's their duty to fight on the front lines, to help escape. 

Lastly, as they were coming up to Floor 25 - a quarter of the way there up Aincrad, and rumours that this boss was going to be a huge challenge - Kirito saw the orange-haired girl from before. She seemed so much different; stressed still, handing out flyers and talking to people on the street to join up and fight, but confident. A few people whispered as they went by, looking at her. She was exceptionally beautiful - and confident, and glowing. Kirito heard from Rico that some big guilds and alliances were forming for the Floor 25 fight; for example, the religious followers of Kayaba had grown massively, and teamed up with a small guild call the Dragons, to form the Holy Dragon Alliance. 

When Floor 25 had been conquered, and Floor 26 publicly opened up, Kirito decided to visit.

**Author's Note:**

> Crossing Field lyrics by Amanda Lee (LeeandLie, YouTube).


End file.
